The Highlands of Canaan: agricultural life in the early Iron Age

THE SOCIAL WORLD OF BIBLICAL ANTIQUITY SERIES, 3 General Editor: James W. Flanagan (Missoula, MT) Editorial Advisory Board: 7';"; ,; ........•.•.. Frank S. Frick·(AIbion,MIkr~0l"IIlanK. (;ottwald (New York, NY), David M. Gunn (Decatur, G:A}, Howat'd Harrod (Nashville, TN), Be.~~ard~.~Il~(~~der~?rn, :BRD), garo~~. ~~ye~. .(l)urhll;tn,.~C), Ericur~~, ~C), John)V. Ro~on(Sheffiel!;l,U.K.), Thomas~. Overh()lt (~tevensPoint, WI), RobereR. Wilson (New Haven, CT), Keith W. Whitelam (Sth-ling, U.K.)

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data:

7:-

Hopkins, David C.,195 The Highlan~sofC~~~an. (The Soci~bJ:"o~ld..~f biblic~ ahti~~~ty.series, ISSN 0265-1408; 3) 'Originally submitted as a dissertation to the Vanderbilt University Graduate Department of Religion in December of 1983"--Pref. Bibliography: p. Includes indexes. 1. Agriculture--Palestine--History. 2. Iron age-vPalest.ine. 3. Agriculture in the Bible. 4. Palestine--Rural conditions. I. Title. II. Series S4~5.JI6!1!}85. 630'.933 85-19179 ISBN 0-907459-38-2 ISBN 0-907459-39-0 (pbk.)

Copyright .. © 1985 JSOT Press ALMOND is an imprint of JSOT PRESS Departmenl'l)f Biblical Studies T~'U;ive'rslt£of Sheffield ,Slieffie1d,.81O:2TN,'England ! r _:,,/:,,:_:'~sJ}'~ ?Ji'" " . \ .Origination & Editorial: THE ALMOND PRESS C6~umbia..The6IogicalSeminary P.O-. Box·52.0. Decatur, GA 30031, U.S.A.

t:

This book is published in association with THE AMERICAN SCHOOLS OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH

Printed in Great Britain by Dotesios (Printers) Ltd., Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire

CONTENTS Preface

9

Chapter One INTRODUCTION

J3

A. The Study of Agriculture in Ancient Israel B. Agriculture and the Emergence of Israel

15 21

Chapter Two THE PARAMETERS OF AGRICULTURAL SYSTEtv;S

25

A. Classifications of Agriculture B. The Parameters of Agriculture 1. Environment 2. Agricultural Technology 3. Population C. Summary Chapter Three GEOMORPHOLOGY OF HIGHLAND CANf\AN A. Introduction B. The Regions 1. The Negev Highlands 2. The Judean Highlands 3. The Sarnarian highlands 4-. The Galilean Highlands C. The Consequences of Geomorphological Diversity Chapter Four CLIMATE AND CLIMATIC CHANGE A. Climate 1. Introduction 2. Seasonality 3. Air Temperature and Insolation 4. Precipitation 5. Water Availability B. Climatic Change 5

27 32 32 36 4-2 50 53 55 56 56 58 63 67 72 77 79 79 79 81 84 91 99

Chapter Five NATURAL VEGETATION AND SOILS Introduction Nature of the Climax Vegetation Causes of Deforestation Age of Deforestation Consequences of Deforestation Soil Landscape 1. Soil Distribution and Properties 2. Soils and Agriculture G. Natural Vegetation and Soils: Consequeoces for~ignIand Settlement

A. B. C. D. E. F.

Chapter Six POPlJLATIOl'l A. Introduction B. Settlement Pattern.: 1• . Community Layout 2. Individual Structures and Installations 3. Zonal Pattern of Settlement C. Population Landscape and Agriculture Chapter Seven AGRICULTURAL OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES: WATER CONSERVATION AND CONTROL A. B. C. D.

Introduction Terrace Systems Irrigation Field Techniques

109 111 111 115 117 120 123 123 130 132 135 137 138 139 142 157

167

171 173 173 186 187

Chapter Eight AGRICULTURAL OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES: SOIL CONSERVA TION AI\D FERTILITY J\;;AINTENANCE A. Introduction B. Fallowing and Land-Use Intensity I. Green Fallow 2. Crop Rotation 3. Sabbatical-Year Law C. Fertilization D. Terrace Systems E. The Soil Base in Highland Agriculture

189 191 192 195 197 200

202 208 209

Chapter Nine AGRIC ULTURAL OBJEC TIVES A i\ D S1 RA TEGIES: RISK SPREADING Al\D THE OPTI~IIZATION OF LABOR 211 A. Introduction B. Work in the Fields 1. Plowing and Planting 2. harvesting 3. Vine and Tree Crops 4-. The Structure of \vork in the Fields C. Land Use 1. Types of Land Use 2. Land-Use Pattern 3. Crop Mix and Yielding Characteristics 4. Agriculture and Livestock husbandry 5. Land-Use Pattern: Summary D. Social Structure and Institutions Chapter Ten CONCLUSION: SUBSISTENCE CHALLENGES AND THE EMERGENCE OF ISRAEL Notes Abbreviations Bibliography Indexes Maps

213

213 214-

223 227 232 235 235

237

24-1 24-5 250 251

263 279

286 287 314324LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1. Figure 1. 2. 3.

29

Land-Use Classifications

Land Quality Variation Water Balance - Jerusalem Possible Rotational Pattern A 4-. Possible Rotational Pattern B 5. Sabbatical Year in Biennial Rotation

...I

3493 198 198 201

To my wife, Denise Dombkowski Hopkins, fellow teacher, scholar, and parent.

PREFACE This volume presents my study of agriculture in the early Iron Age Highlands of Canaan which was originally submitted as a dissertation to the Vanderbilt University Graduate Department of Religion in December of 1983. The manuscript has not been rewritten, though some revisions, mostly matters of presentation, have been made. For the acceptance of the work for the Social World of Biblical Antiquity Series and for the expeditious handling of the publication process, I am deeply grateful to Jim Flanagan, editor of the series, and David Gunn, its publisher. It is a privilege to be a part of the work of the Almond Press. I am grateful also to Eric M. Meyers for the co-sponsorship of ASOR. This study began as an investigation of a fairly circumscribed biblical legal tradition. The attempt to discern how the sabbatical year, "shernitta," and the jubilee year fit into ancient Israelite agrarian society soon met with the realization that no adequate portrait of agricultural life in biblical times existed. Thus the present work took shape. The original focus now provides but an ambiguous piece of evidence along the way. I am very happy to acknowledge two experts on ancient Israelite agriculture whose assistance stands out among all that I have received. Oded Borowski graciously shared his research on Iron Age agriculture with me almost before the ink had dried on his dissertation. Lawrence E. Stager generously supplied me with some bibliographic references at the beginning of my research and also made available to me a rough form of his study of early Israelite Highland villages. The impact of Stager's work especially with respect to Highland demography is duly noted in the text. My debt to my teachers at Vanderbilt can hardly be acknowledged. Any success that my work has achieved is owed to Douglas A. Knight, Walter Harrelson, Lou H. Silberman, and James L. Crenshaw - to their learning and teaching and to their example. I also add a word of thanks to anthropologist Ronald Spores, also of Vanderbilt, whose advice at the initial and final stages of my project proved to be of great worth. Summer, 1984

David C. Hopkins Lancaster 9

I I

I !

I I l'

II I

!

I Woodcuts are taken from John Kitto's Palestine: The Physical Geography and Natural History of the Holy Land (London, 1841) and (p. 211 only) his Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature (New York, 1857), vol. 1.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

M"OWltaiDli

orGalilee and Samaria..

13

Chapter One INTRODUCTION A. The Study of Agriculture in Ancient Israel HE astonishing thing about the study of the agricultural world of ancient Israel lies not so much in how little is known as in how little energy has been expended in trying to know. This 0..;;;;;;====.1 deficiency appears all the more pronounced against the conspicuous fact that along with the largest slice of the world before the Industrial Revolution and, indeed, even today, ancient Israel was an agrarian society. The explanation for this neglect has been set forth often enough: the preference for the ideological rather than the material in the study of ancient Israel (see Gottwald 1979b: 592-607; Netting 1977: 57). The present work aims to help remedy this situation by beginning to compose a portrait of the fundamental material basis for the existence of ancient Israel: its agricultural systems. "Records of agricultural development before the Hellenistic and Roman periods are so scattered and meagre that they provide but little basis for the sustained narrative" (Reifenberg 1955: 79). These words of A. Reifenberg display the prevalent view that data on the early history of eastern Mediterranean agriculture are unremediably deficient. Method,consequently, must occupy a preeminent place in any investigation of ancient farming systems which hopes to be less pessimistic. While this work is not a methodological treatise, questions about how one is able to reconstruct the economies of the ancient world surface again and again as the description and. analysis of agriculture in earliest Israel proceeds. Thus an orientation to this study can be gained through a brief consideration of the kinds of data upon which it draws and, to use Reifenberg's words, the nature of the "sustained narrative" that it presents. To be fair to Reifenberg, who was writing at the midpoint of this century,one major source of evidence of the 15

Hopkins - The Highlands of Canaan agricultural systems of ancient Israel had not in his day become the massive mine of data on material life that it presently comprises, namely the results of archaeological excavations and surveys. A recent dissertation by Oded Borowski (1979) has collected much of this invaluable information in a catalogue of .the. components of Israelite agriculture. Despite its essential contribution, the value of archaeology for reconstructing the agricultural economy of ancient Israel has scarely begun to be tapped. Few in number have been archaeological research strategies designed with the collection of agriculturally relevant data at the forefront of their intentions. As Dever has \vdtten: Attention has been. duly pai~tbexcavatif'lgtowl1 defenses, •monumental str\lctures such- as. pala;cesand temples, and other evidences 0f)nstitutionaI o~ public life. But the private sector (or "dailyIife)nansient times") so readily illuminated. by archaeology has been inadequately dealt with. Palestine has produced a wealth of material for the Iron Age, yet oneh.a.s only to reflect on how little.we yet know of IsraeIiterl1aterial .• culture apart. from . a bare catal?g .of. typical artifacts (forthcoming; see also de Geus 1975: 65). This situation is changing, happily, and the signs of the change are recognizable not only in the intentional pursuit of data on ancient farming (especially Edelstein and Kislev 1981), but in the growth of specialized pursuits with great implications for the . advancement of .relevant knowledge. Here. the most lraportan; developments in this regard can be listed. Paleosteclogical iov,estigations are adding to knowledge of ancient demography,· through the analysis of human bones and cemetery popuiations(Angel 1972), as well as agricultural and pastoral pursuits and their interrelation, through the recovery, analysis, and interpretarion: of bones from the animal portion of the ancient diet. (La Bianca 1978, 1979a, 1979b). A few palynological investigations have been attempted, and while conditions for the preservation of pollen are not ideal in· the land of ancient Israel, future discoveries may help solve important questions about the , vegetational history of the region (Horowitz 1971, 1974, 1978). Examination of vegetational remains recovered in excavations (paleoethnebotenyl-.ts becoming more. common, adding not only to the record of vegetationaL.change, but to the inventory of crops known to have .been cultivated in ancient times (HelbaekI958, 1960; Lipshitz and Waisel 1973a, 16

Chapter One - Introduction 1973b, 1976, 1980; Renfrew 1973). More and more valuable data:a.re,bei,ng,\assembled -, as sophisticated analytical techniques pro~excavated artifacts that used to appear in archaeological reports merely as line drawings with notations about color, ',condition, and decoration. The description of ceramic finds can be amplified through spectrographic analysis along with other techniques that provide information about the origin and manufacturing process of pottery (Glock 1975). Significant new data about the beginnings of the use of iron have been achieved from iron artifacts through a spectrum of means of metallurgic analysis. Concrete evidence can now supplement and correct previous impressions about the introduction of iron which had been based primarily on literary sources (Stech-Wheeler et ale L981). Computer-aided statistical analysis of finds and find-spots opens the possibility of testing a variety of hypotheses with respect to the functions of various buildings or site activity loci and perhaps even sociological organization (McClellan 1977). In truth it must be noted that the evidence created by the application of these new research methods is not presently available in sufficient quantity to be determinative. The contributions of these branches of archaeological science lie still beyond the horizon, though suggestive clouds have begun to appear. One senses a frustration with the previous narrow conception of archaeological investigation not unlike that felt by stratigraphic excavators about digs before the davs of Wheeler-Kenyon. It would be incautious not to add here, however, that there are real limits to what archaeology is able to testify concerning the conduct of agricultural systems, especially in the long-occupied land and multi-layered sites of this region. Numerous agriculturally related practices ordinarily leave no trace in the soil. One item,' which has .the potential of overcoming this inherent limitation has not been recovered archaeologically to any helpful extent. Epigraphic materials, deriving usually from commerce and government, can testify much about agricultural operations, but these are few and far between in the archaeological record. Most outstanding have been the Nessana papyri, records in a technical sense of the economic life of this Negeb settlement. But these records stem from the 6th and 7th centuries C.E. (Mayerson 1960: 14--21). The Samaria Ostracaand the ostraca from Arad present limited information about the administration of foodstuffs, but permit only the most tentative kind of inferences about the 17

Hopkins- The Highlands of Canaan conduct of agriculture> in Iron Ag~II(lstaeLMuseum 1973: }q-38, 48~3). Only ,the Gezer Calendar offers any help for reconstructing 'the cOUrse~.~i~i~~p:£~~.~ii~ d':!~')ig~~.~i been used can be distinguished. First~1i~"'~~fiie tilll_;fave been called upon to illuminate the constraints ~(.. and possibilities of agricultural subsistence in ancient Israel. ~ , Here "the ethnographic data perform a heuristic function by '-Y suggesting some of the possibilities" for interpreting data E!~., about the structuring of agricultural life (Aschenbrenner 1976: 160). Analogies have been drawn from communities of the same social scale, possessing parallel technological assemblages, and populating similar physical environments. There exist a few ethnographic accounts of communities which presently inhabit the same regions as the Israelite settlers did three thousand years ago. Turkowski (I 969) in particular has presented a fairly detailed picture of the operations of the agricultural year in the Judean Highlands before the advent of the state of Israel. Access to similar data is also available through the multi-volume work of Gustav Dalman (1932-1935), though neither of these studies constitutes a holistic description of Palestinian agricultural society. Closer in this respect is the study by Richard Antoun (I972) of the Transjordanian village Kufr al-Ma. Antoun's study focuses primarily on the social structure of this village, however, and has devoted little energy to the elucidation of ecological relationships. The helpfulness of these ethnographic studies and compendia of data is great but limited by their small number and also by their lack of systemic perspectives. Increasing the number of communities studied would raise the. level of confidence in the analogies discovered. Analogies have also been drawn from the studies of villages throughout the eastern Mediterranean, especially 19

Hopkins. - The Highlands of Canaan tt)osE:.lnhighland . regions (e.g~"i¥cDOOfo\ldand Rapp :1972; Marfoe •. 19&0;.' Lew isI 9531.WhHe geographical pr~xll'pltyiebbs ..away,.the.continuityof .• the dv\editetranean Gllmate.·•.withitssharp •. seasonality iespeciaHy recommends these communities. . . •The process • ' of selecting tandsempleylng analogies from ethnographic literature requries .a good deal of sensitivity which can hardly be described empirically. Alongside of the factors of economy and distance in terms of time, space, and form, Ascher adds to his picture of a systematic approach to choosing analogies lithe closeness of fit of the relationships between forms in the archaeological situation with relationships between forms in the hypothesized analogous situation", (1 961: 323). This is a matter entirely in the hands of '.. the . interpreter. Thus in this study, the ethnography of AndeanviIlages supplies, perhaps surprisingly, some very helpfuL suggestions regarding the possibilities of structuring agricultural -Iife r.in a diverse highland region (e.g., Brush 1977). Here the heuristic function of the analogies is clear: they .don't add measurably to the probability that certain social. Jormsor technical strategies existed among the communities of the Israelite Highlands, but they do whet the acuity of the one struggling to comprehend the nature of the adaptation to this diverse and fragmented region. Binford has argued that the fit of any analogy is not determined by the criteria of its selection, but is "a problem to be solved by the formulation of hypotheses testable by archaeological data" (I968: 270). This has not been attempted in this study. The description of many facets of the agricultural systems of ancient Israel remains at the level of suggestion, to be raised to the level of probable fact only by future testing in carefully designed programs of research. A second use of ethnographic data serves to construct a general picture of the nature of agricultural systems and to illuminate the dynamic relation of environment, population, and technology in determining their shape. Ethnographic observations have contributed to a model of how agriculture works, and it is this functional model that has provided the framework for analyzing available data and employing it in the description of the particular agricultural systems of ancient Israel. Ethnographic studies and anthropological theorizing that are associated with the desire to understand the systemic interrelationship of the environment, the needs of subsistence, and the structure of human communities have played the greatest part in formulating this framework (e.g.,

·F()r:!>~.s .;I~Z 6;

20

Chapter One - Introduction Netting 1968, 1977: 57-&2; Waddell 1972: Wolf 1966). Some of the particular emphases of the agricultural model stem from this conceptualworld'fndstrategy of research, namely: the notion that environment does not interact with community in a staticway,theconviction thatcnange in population size relative to available ., resources constitutes an important mechanism of systemic change, and a very broad definition of technology as comprising more than just the tool inventory of the society (see Heider 1972; Orlove 1980; Vayda and Rappaport 1968). Whether or not one agrees with the mode of conceiving of human society that underlies this model, its presence in this work marks a departure from previous studies of Israelite agriculture which fail to provide any interpretive model of agricultural systems. Intentional concern with such models is essential not only as a statement of interpretive perspective within a larger scholarly context, but as an aid in the recovery of data that may be obscured by a too narrow concentration on one aspect of an agricultural system. It is in this concern for agriculture as a system that fresh meaning can be found for Reifenberg's words "sustained narrative." In essence, what this study seeks is not a time line or an agricultural· history but an understanding of agriculture's complex, multi-d imensional body and a charting of its dynamics in ancient Israel. It is through an understanding of the interrelationship of the various determinants which shape agricultural systems that a "sustained narrative" can be composed. B. Agriculture and the Emergence of Israel Borowski's dissertation on agriculture in Iron Age Israel sets out to describe the "state of agriculture" and warns that as a result of the limitation of evidence, the picture developed "is a still picture rather than a moving picture showing progress and development" (1979: 2, 4). But the lack of sufficient scenes to create a motion picture does not justify creating a collage of stills to represent the whole. Limitations on data do hamper efforts to describe the development of Israelite agriculture thoughout the Iron Age, but this does not mean that there were no crucial changes in the determinants of the conduct of agriculture during this lengthy period. In fact, the changes throughout this period in the social, economic, demographic, and even environmental determinants of agricultural systems are sufficiently great that no single, comprehensive picture can be accurate. 21

Hopkins .. The Highlands of Canaan Though

ther~.

Is .historical COfltinuity . in the people, metho-

dologicaJ~y~!->is,u!1SQ{jnc:iito.jointogethet"iJevidence .spanning theIt:Qfl.~geintoa~ingle portrait.

It is essential, therefore, that. a. f~us on a particulaJ;" period of the Iron Age be chosen in order to ,limit the extent to which incompatible details of the agricultural systems are forced together. The period chosen for this study is the.period of Israel's emergence in the Canaanite Highlands before the united resistance to the Philistines and others under the leadership of Saul (ca. .J250..J 050B.C.E.). Archaeologically, this is the period of the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age, in particular the early Iron Age or Iron Age I (Aharoni 1982: 153-157;deVaux 1978: 679-(80). At the end of this period, ,the formation of the monarchy represents the decislve break in the conduct of agriculture that necessitates !henarrow ,.focus •if " a clear. picture of the conduct of agriculture is to be sketched (Hopkins 1983). This focus also offers the benefit of setting the geographical boundaries of ~he study within the Highlands' regions, the heart of all ISraelite history, but the exclusive locus of settlement and control during Iron Age I. The territorial expansion of the early-monarchy into the plains' regions constitutes another slgniflcant division between the two periods which is of fundamental importance in characterizing their agricultural systems. Although there are good reasons for their inclusion, the Transjordanian Highlands are not encompassed by this pescription of the agricultural systems of the period of ISraelite emergence. Practical concerns, especially the ]imited access to information on the environment and the slower pace of 'archaeological research, were the weightiest factors in shaping their exclusion (see Sauer 1982; Sawyer and ~lines 1983). The fact that there exists no scholarly consensus as to the nature of the process involved in the emergence of Israel in ~he early Iron Age, indeed the debate is more vigorous, more complex, and more voluminous today than it was just ten years ago, contributes both to the difficulty and to the potential of the study of agriculture during this period (Miller 1!977; Gottwald 1979b: 191-227, 489-587; Weippert 1971). The difficulties are obvious and consist in a lack of resolution ccncerrung the time frame, origin and previous social and economic state of the settlers, and the size of the population ipvolved in the process.' The potential can be Illustrated e:asily. Descriptions of the process of Israelite emergence in the Highlands of Canaan often place a good deal of weight 22

Chapter One - Introduction upon a single technological innovation or constellation of innovations that radically altered the ability of the Highland region to support habitation, that is, transformed the conduct q~« of its agricultural systems /1/. Thus, Albright adduced the CMsCV~k role of the discovery -ofva waterproof lining for cisterns at ~~! ([1960) 1971: 113; also Borowski 1979: 10; Gottwald I979b: 656; ~~l Thompson 1979: 66). Gottwald views the introduction of iron as the decisive material basis for the expansion of settlement in the Highlands, where it had a "great and immediate impact" in Israelite "techno-economics" (I979b: 655; also Borowski: 1979: 10; de Geus 1976: 168; Miller 1977: 255, 257). More recently, a similar role has been envisioned for the art of terrace construction which is viewed as a necessity for the conduct of agriculture in the rugged Highland topography (Stager forthcoming; Thompson 1979: 66). The task before a study of agriculture in this period of the emergence of Israel is to determine not only the extent to which such technological "innovations" as these were incorporated into agricultural practice, but more importantly, precisely how they were integrated into the larger agricultural system and the extent to which they - by themselves or in conjunction with other developments transformed the conduct of agriculture. Did these "innovations" actually facilitate the expansion of settlement in the early Iron Age Highlands and were they antonomous spurs to the formation of Israel? To anticipate the results of this inquiry: the technological component of agricultural systems (understood as tools or techniques) has been grossly overplayed. When this single-minded focus on technology is broadened to encompass the other determinants of agricultural subsistence in the early Iron Age Highlands, its significance recedes. Developments in farming technology do not suffice to characterize the agricultural systems of this period or to chart such changes as occurred. In fact, it is quite doubtful from the standpoint of agricultural operations that any of the aforementioned technological developments exercised a determining influence on the emergence of Israel. The systemic description of agriculture in the early Iron Age Highlands of Canaan offered by this study sheds light on the process of the emergence of Israel, but it does not eventuate in a reconstruction of the history of this period. The illumination emanates primarily from the ability of a functional model to describe the relations among elements of a system and to be able on that basis to assess the consequences of changes in any of its parts (see Gottwald 23

Hopkins ,.1he Highlands of Canaan 1979b: 608-61 n.On -the basis of the understanding of the ,TTi' dynamics of agriculture -set ',forth here, the chaIJenges and~; possibilities confronting a:given population, in itsstrugg1e foe; subsistence intheeariy Iron (\ge Highlands of Canaan can be , stated. This leads to abetter" appreciation of the process ofi the formation of Israel in the Highlands, but does not cast '; direct light on the existence of a proto-Israel in the;" Highlands of the Late Bronze Age or outside the Highlands altogether.

24

CHAPTER TWO THE PARAMETERS OF AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS

Terrace Cultivation.

25

Chapter Two THE PARAMETERS OF AGRICULTURAL S\ STUv',S

/\. Classifications of ,A.griculture GRIC ULTLJRAL systems exist around the world in astonishing variety. western, ethnocentric perspectives have often obscured the great range of the world's agricultural activity as well as its ~~~~~ subtle adjustment to its many and varied physical and cultural environments (Netting 1977: 58). ,A. fair appreciation of the variety of the world's agriculture can be gained from the ongoing study of the location of agriculture on the part of agricultural geographers. A recent study of the world's agricultural regions by David Grigg wrestles with the difficulties involved in the construction of typologies of agriculture and settles on a list of nine major types: (I) shifting agriculture, (2) wet-rice cultivation in Asia, (3) pastoral nomadism, (4) Mediterranean agriculture, (5) mixed farming in Western Europe and North Arner ica, (6) dairying, (7) the plarrtat ion system, l8) ranching, anc large-scale grain production (1974: 3; see also Spencer and Stewart 1973: 529). Among the factors upon which typologies such as this one are based are the type of crop rotation, the intensity of the rotation, the water supply, the cropping pattern and animal activities, the implements used for cultivation, and the degree of commercialization (Ruthenberg 1976: 14-17). By employing these criteria, farms displaying similar characteristics may be grouped together in a world-wide system of agricultural regions. Despite outward appearances, most classifications such as Grigg's are in no way attempts to explain the occurrences of different agricultural systems in simplistic, geographicalenvironmental terms. Grigg himself is inclined to emphasize the role of the history of a region's agriculture in attempting to understand its existence (1974: 1). Rather they are merely expressive of the appropriateness of the geographical approach to the analysis of agriculture. The world's agricultural regions may be mapped. 27

Hopkins - The Highlands of Canaan For our purposes the major limitation of this geographical approach is that it is synchronic and describes agriculture as it exists in a given region at a given time. The parameters of the shape of a particular agriculture naturally come into consideration. But such typologies ', of agriculture tell only part of the story since they fail to communicate the range of agricultural possibility within a region and through time. A number of attempts to provide a classification of agriculture which would serve this function have been made. These attempts focus not on the agricultural regions of the world, but on a denominator common to all agrieulture, that of land. use. Land use may be defined as the degree to whieh es are amount of land used, Iabor requirement, implements, and length of growing season. Thus he notes that the dominant tool in sectorial farming systems is the hoe or digging stick, but that short-term fallowing systems are dominated by the plow. Permanent cultivation is associated with techniques for assuring a permanent water supply. Wolf's detailed discussion of these paleotechnic peasant ecotypes deals predominantly with the regional specificity of land-use types (so short-term fallowing is labeled "Eurasian Grain Farming" and subdivided into major variant ecotypes, the Mediterranean and Transalpine). However, he recognizes as well the possibility of progression from one ecotype to another in the same locality, under certain circumstances (so swidden systems may be transformed by technical innovation into short-term agriculture characterized by the use of the draft plow). Wolf's attention to peasant agriculture produces a strong regional orientation in his classification, but his primary objective is to show how a number of factors combine to shape agricultural systems (1966: 20-21, 29-34). The seminal study of the location of agricultural production by J. von ThGnenprovides yet another system, but one quite different than the others ([1826] 1921; see Hall 1966 and for general discussion of the model: Bradford and Kent 1977: 28-41; Chisholm 1962: 21-35). It includes the additional systems of stockfarming and dairying in a description of the location of various but. all highly intensive (except forestry) land uses around a single, central city. Von ThGnen based his scale on a consideration of all the costs of crop production and their variation with distance from the market place. His ideal model assumed a uniform environment in terms of soil fertility, climate, topography, and market in order to observe the operation of the factor of transportation costs. For a given crop, von Thiinen argued, intensity of cultivation will . diminish with distance from the market since higher transportation cost means more rapidly diminishing returns from the costs of intensification of production. One would expect grain to be grown ina more intensive fashion nearer the market than farther away. For a farm cultivating a number of different crops the location theory (what crop

30

Chapter Two - Agricultural Systems where and in what intensity) is not so simple, but the . crop output, costs, and transportability will determine the location and intensity of its various crops. Von Thunen's agricultural intensity classification presents a pictureoi a single system in a given uniform locus drawn with static-state explanations phrased in economic terms. Von Thiinen held environment uniform in order to observe the functioning of other variables and paid little attention to historical development in determining agricultural intensity. Economist Ester Boserup almost completely dismisses the environmental factor, but correspondingly plays up historical factors in her land-use classification (I965: 15-16). Boserup's five basic types of land use are arranged on her scale exclusively by the degree of intensity of cultivation: from one crop in ten or more years to more than one crop in a single year. In a later publication she expands her list to six items by including a pre-agricultural type: "Gathering of food - no cultivation, all land 'fallow Iand'" (I 976: 25). 1 his classification claims more than just general applicability. Boserup believes her classification to be a sequential scale of agricultural practice in a given setting, movement along which is caused by changes in population pressure. The appearance of anyone of these intensities of land use is explained by Boserup in terms of population pressure and labor efficiency. The point of comparing these four land use classifications and relating them to geographical typologies of agriculture is two-fold. First of all, these attempts to bring order to the agricultural systems of the world themselves clearly display the immense variety of those systems. Moving beyond a mere catalog of types, however, the four land use classifications also represent attempts to explain the appearance of certain agricultural systems in certain environments. But they are radically different attempts and this despite the fact that they all organize on the basis of land-use intensity. The question of the differences between the explanatory variables in the land-use classifications of von Thiinen, Allan, Wolf, and Boserup may be answered in terms of perspective and purpose. Von Thunen focusea narrowly upon an ideal city and its environs in the early nineteenth century, Wolf on the peasants' world and their struggle for sustenance, while Allan explored exclusively African agriculture with the vital concern of elucidating ways to increase native agricultural production in areas of colonial administration. Boserup has comparativ~interrelationship.0£

31

Hopkins.,. The Highiandsol Canaan the gretitpopulationboornofthelast twoc:;:~nturies in nil as shere~ches'for athe~ry. ~Ohel~fhart~g~icultural. gro in •.•.•. :the '·· .' . a result, one of the main topographic features is.l'the many interfluves (i.e., ridge-like mountail}'lllS"spursseparated .by deeply incised valleys) extending mainly westward" (Schattner 1971: 139). Despite the pervasive effect of this steam erosion at their margins, the Judean Highlands are a compact mountain range, containing few isolated mountain blocks with intervening valleys. The range extends from its southern border with the Negev Highlands some 80km. Its rounded crest varies in width between 15 and 25km while maintaining an elevation of 705m. Its peaks exceed 1000m, the loftiest being Mt Halhul near Hebron (1020m); at l016m, Baal Hazer near Bethel is also prominent. The northern border between the Highlands of Judea and Samaria is not sharply defined geologically. McGown suggests the border is marked by "a gradual increase of barrenness and rocky terrain" toward JUdah (1962: 631), but this is hardly a secure notion. More secure is Yehuda Karmon's view that the boundary between these two physiographically distinct regions lies "in that area where the typical feature of Samaria - the interior basins - occurs farthest south, i.e., in the valley of Shilo (Turrnus Aiyi)" (1971: 317-318). The course of Nahal Shilo fixes the border between these regions to the west, and the El Fasayil wadi performs a similar function to the east. Above this point the axes of the Samarian anticlines turn perceptively from the almost north-south trend of the Judean fold to a southwest-northeast trend. Viewed in terms of altitude the Judean Hills present a tripartite structure. The Hebron Hills in the south and the Bethel Hills in the north are both higher by lOO-200m than the central Jerusalem Hills which form a saddle between them. Other features, especially the erosional topography, combine to distinguish these three subregions. The Hebron Hills. By far the greatest in areal extent, covering more ground than the other two subregions combined, the Hebron Hills are divided in their lower reach into the Adoraim and Eshtaemoa ranges by the broad valley of the Nahal Hebron (which drains them into the Beersheba basin to the southwest). From just south of Hebron where they constitute a single crest, these two ranges take the shape of elongated spurs which slip down to the south and constitute a transition zone to the basins of Beersheba and Arad, In contrast, the western margin of the Hills consists of 59

Hopkins ',.. The Highlands of Canaan a

mono present central place, sits at close to 900m while the Hills . reach their highest altitude at Baal Hazor (I 016m) near the ~. border with the Samarian Highlands. Along with their greater height, . the Bethel Hills enjoy a broader width than their ~isouthern neighbors. In the west, the Shephelah comes to an if end in the Ayalon Valley, and above this the Bethel Hills ~.•. spread some 15km closer to the sea. Their width is also augmented in the east where the anticlinal crest broadens, narrowing the northward extension of the Judean Desert. The . influence of this broadening has been felt particularly in the erosional pattern of the subregion's streams which have carved its topography. The lateral expansion of the mountain watershed has meant a less gradual descent of its drainage routes to the coastal plain and Rift Valley at its margins. In line with their stronger erosive power, the rivers have etched their way into the mountain crest, slicing almost completely through it. (Note especially the upper reaches of N. Shilloh which run all the way to Silwad.) Consequently, travel northward along the greatly dissected crest is made more arduous, and the central highway must cross a number of valleys. The long and gently sloped interfluves which enable easy access to the Jerusalem Saddle disappear in the Bethel Hills except on the very southern border where the ascent of Beth-heron has long provided strategic access. "Thus the Mountains of Bet-El show a difficult topography, are entirely lacking level areas and possess no natural routes" (Karrnon 1971: 327). The superficial rocks are again of the CenomanianTuronian with the exception of an area north and west of Ramallah where the deep incision of the anticline has exposed rocks of the Lower Cretaceous. b. The Shephelah Depending upon where one draws its northern border, the 61

Hopkins. 7 Theljighlands ofC. Stormy, rnoisture-Iadened winds rise over the hills after they cross the Mediterranean coast, cool, and increased pre.. cipltation results. The increase in rainfall experienced by

84

Chapter Four - Climate &- Climatic the Highlands keeps pace with increasing altitude. The steepness of altitudinal increases also produces an effect: the steeper the slope, thesmaller. the area over which rain will fall from the cooled air. Xhedistribution of rain over the central . Judean and. <Sa marian Highlands provides a .good example.ofthe fUJ1ct~ol1ingof. both the altitudinal and the northern-direction factor. The more southerly position of the Judean Highlands is compensated for by its higher altitude so that differences in average annual precipitation between these two regions are minimal. However, because of its greater relative distance from the normal track of depressions,Judea does experience a less regular rainfall pattern than its northern neighbor (Karrnon 1971: 317). Also a significant factor affecting the spatial distribution of rainfall is the direction which a slope faces. Slopes which are exposed to the winds coming off of the Mediterranean (facing west or southwest) will show a true orographic increase in precipitation. Slopes which face in the opposite direction (east, southeast or northeast), however, possess no exposure to the rainbearing winds and will show more than a simple orographic decrease in precipitation. Above these slopes air will warm in its descent away from the sea, and precipitation will diminish more rapidly than if altitude alone determined. This process produces the rain-shadow effect so conspicuous in the Judean Hills where sites at the same latitude and altitude on either side of the crest will show dramatically different precipitation totals. The combination of these principles of rainfall distribution over Highland Canaan adequately accounts for the observed pattern as displayed in the map of mean annual rainfall. The accumulation of precipitation in the Highlands is significantly higher on the average than the coastal plain or Jezreel Valley. Some areas in the Highlands lie beyond the 300mm isohyet which sets the limit for all but the most extensive dry farming regimes, namely: the Negev Highlands; the greater, eastern section of the Judean desert; the area surrounding the Emeq Far'ia in the East Samarian Hills. In large sections of Upper Galilee rainfall exceeds IOOOmm. (See Map 2 [p.325].) Because of the tremendous topographic variation of the Highlands, the isohyets of the map of mean annual rainfall can be taken only as general guides. The rapid succession of basins and mountain blocks, the different exposures of rounded hills, and the varying angles of slopes produce pronounced local adaptations of the regional isohyets. Thus, "because of the variety of topographical relief, the rainfall

85

Hopkins .... The Highlands of Canaan map of'c'the 'aills' lacks homogeneity" (Orniand 155);" )';'~,Z'1'r!;E.&"", "c ,'CiCC" C ;L.,I:qual'iinLirnP()rtancetomt raiI1fa!lof, real andsignifi climate changes . profound enough to show upon the as nomicalscale .0fcHmatic history. Below suchthird-or. changes of glacial proportions, paleodimatologistsha identified second-order.variations, measured in the hundre of years, and first-orderfluctuations which are observa within a lifetime (Butzer 1974: 730). Sincefirst-order fluctuations are generally too minor leave any evidence,' it is the second-order variations whi are the focus •of the study of the post-Pleistocene climat history of the ancient Near East. It makes best sense, the to speak in this context 'of climatic variation rather th climatic change. Accompanying this must be the realizati that, both in terms of' the relative scales of climatic human histories and in view of the available evidence, ther. is no. justification for the view that the climate of Highlai) Canaan or of the •larger Levant has changed profoundly sin,.\ the end of the last glacial period. The view that the Nea~ East has experienced a progressive desiccation, associatetfteHighlands,so the soil give rise is mc)s!'pervasive: the characteristical nean terravrossa,' Terra rossa soils develop ?woodland ",~n~ir()t'l~et'lts.. subject to intensi I1g and belongt?,~ry~f group of soils characterized Ble. profile(l\~~sa.ul this surprise (Reifenberg 1947: 80-84). The pH of the soil between ().5and 7.8, so it is just slightly more alkaline ....... ;i./!, the neutral conditions considered ideal for the absorption all nutrients needed for plant growth. Terra rossa has cation exchange capacity of 30-40 meg per 100 grams of (Atlas of Israel, "Geomorphology 11/3"). The cation exchange capacity measures the soil's ability to hold necessary nutrients (calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium ~~ciany) so that they may be taken up by plants in growth., The range inhabited by terra rossa signals a 126

Chapter Five - Natural Vegetation &. Soils good, potentialfertility/l4/. Terra rossa soils are usually les~~anio!'1c;;'met.~I::,in>depth,.andfairly stony due to the conti9l.!O\,ls.. ,disintegration . of the limestone parent rock (Bridges 1970: 5&). The physical properties of..terre rossa are hinted at by the cation exchange capacity since this is often a function of a soil'~da:ycontent. Beaumont, Blake and Wagstaff report that the slay. content of terra rossa is commonly more than 50 perce.~!(I(76: 135)-. Reifenberg's mechanical analysis of two surf(ice samples from the Samarian Highlands shows a clay content of 4& and 27 percent respectively (1947: 77-78). Whatever the precise figure- and site-to-site variability is to be expected - the fairly high proportion of finely grained clay in J~rrar rossa dictates many of its physical properties. Because" of its clay content, terra rossa has a high moisture-holding capacity, what appears at first glance to offer' considerable advantages in the variable rainfall environment of the Highlands (Beaumont, Blake, and Wagstaff 1976: 135). But because of the nature of clay, plants must exert a great amount of energy in order to withdraw moisture from clayey soils so that this property is not unequivocally positive (Zohary 1962: 11; Bridges 1970: 13-15). Additionally, it contributes to the tendency manifest by terra rossa .in a climate with a wet-dry seasonality to bake hard during the dry and hot summer months and to turn to a sticky paste with the onset of the winter rains, "viscous mud" according to Orni and Efrat (1973: 58). These characteristics combine to render plowing of this soil somewhat difficult in a way that detracts from its agricultural usability despite its high fertility. The high clay fraction of terra rossa also decreases its permeability. Thus infiltration rates for terra rossa are not high, leading to the collection of water on the surface and increased erosive runoff. Also contributing to the susceptibility of terra rossa soils to runoff are their topographical positions. Since they are associated with the rocks of the anticlinal structures of Highland Canaan, they are soils of the hillsides. Terra rossas are found in more level areas in the Judean Highlands, especially atop the longer, more gently sloping and broader interfluves of the Jerusalem Saddle. By and large, however, terra rossa soils blanket areas of strong relief where agricultural systems must contend, at least in the long run, with the loss of the soil to erosion at a faster rate than it is being formed anew. Ail things considered, terra rossa is judged by most to be a productive agricultural soil, "the most 127

Hopkins .; The· Highlands of Canaan fertile soil of the.mountain zone soils" (Karmon which, however,· often ~ demands"specialtreat continuous agricultural· exploitation.· (See below; Ch

;,:";';, , ." } involved in the reconstruction of ancient soil landscapes" degraded environments, these insights remain broad a actually distant from the loci in which agriculturalsyste. take shape and operate. At the community level wher agriculture sustains or fails to sustain a particular populatic in a particular environment gross catalogs of soil types, larg scale maps of soil distribution, and general descriptionso~i soil properties are of little account. ..-:: Data concerning the physical and chemical properties~f soils are tantalizing, however, even on a general level; hO\JIj" much more so on the local level; If we want to know how air agricultural system functions in a given environment, • . a;'1 relationship which in ecological terms is characterized bya pattern of energy exchanges, then data about soil and the like are essential /15/. What kinds of crop possible on the soils of a given environment? What types crops and cropping can be sustained? Does the fertility of soil set limits on the size of the population that can nourished by agriculture at a given technological level? do the types and distribution of soils affect the larld-u~e·i··.·.··· pattern? Such questions as these are increasingly answered in anthropological studies of present-day cultural communities by the collection of detailed, Hied data relating to all aspects of the of human communities and their environments Rappaport 1968: 244-246). Such a study of a living community is, of course, impossible for the historian, yet a inspection and consideration of the soils which provided exploitation base for the local community in ancient HilghJlanCI Canaan contains some possibilities for achieving quantifiable data. An attempt has been made at such

r,

DO

Chapter Five - Natural Vegetation ({ Soils by D. \Vebley (1972) who studied the Shepnelah site of Gezer using the method . of site-catchment analysis in order to calculate th~. economic, (Le., subslsrencel vpotentlal of its 10cation..Webley .fir;st produced a detailed soil map of the areasurro~ncling Gezer "and then classified the area's soils with respect of agricultural and pastoral potential, recognizing the variableness of this potential with advancing technology. In his calculation of the potential of these soils, Webley assumed certain soil-specific cereal yields which were long-term means that took the year-to-year variableness of the agricultural environment into account. Necessary and likely crop-fallow rotations were also included in the equation. The calculation of the number of humans supportable by a given yield of grain from the soils surrounding Gezer,was based upon a necessary daily minimum subsistence intake of two thousand calories which was stated in terms of the amount of grain per year per person. Goat herds were also included in the calculation with assumptions made about the dynamics of the herd (e.g., what percentage of offspring per year) and the areal extent of its grazing requirements. The human equivalent was assessed at the meat of forty kids or twenty goats per year per person. The extent of the land available for agriculture and grazing was set at a radius of 5km for grains (maximum distance of source from market [consumptionj) and two hours' walk for herds. Webley calculated the potential yields of all the arable lands within the 5km radius simply by multiplying the extent of each soil type by its mean yiela and then reducing this figure by the percentage of land lying fallow in any given year. The calculation of herd sizes was made on the basis of the total amount of land within a two hours' walk which was not being cropped in any given year. This series of assumptions, classifications, measurements, and calculations led Webley to assess the population of Late Bronze Age Gezer at 1365, a figure which he found to be in "reasonable agreement" with estimates arrived at on the basis of population densities in urban environments (I972: 179). Webley undertook the above analysis of the environment of Gezer as one part of an attempt to test whether "economic considerations of resource availability and population size will be the primary factors controlling site location" (1972: 169). It would, in fact, be hard to deny that these factors were important determinants of zonal settlement pattern along with defense, trade, and other social and political considerations. Webley's study of Gezer may show only that 131

Hopkins - The Highlands of Canaan the seftlementofGezer .• wasec,0logically possible perSpective; of satisfying subsistence needs in vironment:;;Whe.ther,>!nfact,'Gezer·/·had; to indeed dependsolely'upon 'agriculture O;1S1'c,,";1Ji SI11 environmentto5ustain'itSpopUlation altdgether. ',n A number of assumptions which undergird calculations are also questionable. Thus,Webley takes rij. account of transhurnance and hunting as sources ;'of sustenance, yet these doubtless contributed substantially.rtc, the diet of Late Bronze Age communities, as did gathering~rt/ the forest and maquisnot to mention non-cereal prodUCe from vineyards, vegetable gardens, and orchards. Foodstuffs may also have come through non-agricultural pursuits by w~'lt of trade {the size and location of Gezer are suggestive intni$,.':i respect). All of these may have boosted the popLllatiOi1~:. potential of the site. On the other hand, Webley also fails ~o'/;3:> consider production for non-subsistence needs, a lack whiC!"';)~:;; would ..lower, perhaps :considerably, population estimates based upon productive potential. This list of qua1ificatio~s manifests the appropriateness of Webley's own reservatiop about the reconstruction of prehistoric farm economies i~ detail. Yet his study of the soils of Gezer demonstrates the potential significance of a careful consideration of the soils which support a community's agricultural system. Th~ detailed mapping of the soils of a site can lead to a better, albeit general, appreciation of the dynamics of the local agricultural system. G. Natural Vegetation and Soils: Consequences for Highland Settlement The consideration of : the natural vegetation landscape . of the Highlands reveals two points of significance for the conduct of agriculture in the early .... Age. First,the question of the extent of forestation is vital for its implications about the demands on the settlers of this region with respect for forest clearance and the productivity of its soil environment. The available evidence indicates that' the vegetation of the Highlands was not in the climax stages at the beginning of the Iron Age, but was probably a reduced' more Sparse form of maquis, the result of limited urbanization and the impact of non-sedentary exploitation; Because of this, any expansion of settlement in the Highlands would have demanded a smaller quantity and adifferenf 132

Chapter Five - 1\atura!

&: Soils

quality of forest clearance than has usually been imagined. Soils on the hillsides would not have been terribly eroded, however, and while some deleterious consequences of previous exploitation of this environment must be assumed, a rich soil base would have greeted agriculturalists in most areas. Hilly lands that had been cleared for agriculture or combed for timber in previous centuries WOUld have shown a different picture: the susceptibility of unprotected Highland soils, especially terra rossa, to erosion is great. Lands newly brought into cultivation would face the same prospect. Thus, a consideration of the place of soil conservation in their agricultural systems must occupy a significant part of any description of Highlands' settlement. Second, the potential significance of the study of soils as the zone of vital intersection between a community and its subsistence needs points forward to the consideration of the expansion of settlement in the Highlands in the early Iron Age. How has the growth in the number of settlements affected the nature of the soil environments they enjoy? Does a consideration of the relationship between the settlement sites and their productive bases suggest a particular type or intensity of agriculture? The answers to these questions can only come through a description and analysis of the nature and size of the population of the early Iron Age Highlands of Canaan.

133

CHAPTER SIX POPULATION

Valley of Shecbem, with Mounts Ebal and Gemim.

135

Chapter Six POPULATION A. Introduction HE transformation of the settlement map of the Highlands of Canaan during the transition from the Late Bronze to early Iron Age has been labeled by Weippert as "the only archaeological fact" that can be associated with the "Israelite" settlement (1971: 135). However one judges the correctness of this characterization, the absolute increase in the number of settlement sites in the early Iron Age is the primary datum of Israel's emergence recognized and accepted on all fronts (Bright 1981: 178; Gottwald 1979b: 195-196, 202, 655-656; Aharoni 1982: 180; de Geus 1976: 166-168; Miller 1977: 255). That this transformation of the settlement map translates in a straightforward manner into an increase in the size and density of the Highlands' population is often assumed (as for example by Bright 1981: 178) without a hint that settlement pattern is not solely a function of population size. A thorough study of the dynamics of the relationship between settlement pattern and population size has never been carried out with the Highlands settlement data. This deficiency is to be explained not only with reference to the influence of the immigration model of Israelite origins, but as well by the prevalence of the understanding of population as a dependent variable of economic systems. Even such an analyst as Gottwald, while discussing the lack of reliable demographic knowledge about ancient Israel, skips over population growth as an independent determinant in the formation of Israel in favor of "technological factors" which had the effect of producing a better-fed and multiplying population (I979b: 654-656). Also striking in this respect is the schematic diagram of human-habitat relations published by William G. Dever for the Central Negev Highlands Project. Standing outside the circle of relations is "population; number, density," the outcome of cultivation, grazing, and landscape, 137

Hopkins - The Highlands of Canaan with not even a single route for feedback shown (1980: the marginal Central Negev Highlands the influence of environment (landscape) and of technology (cultlvati grazing) is certainly high relative to more optimal settin As research into the settlement of this region however, it is safe to assume . that the importance particular populations able to transform the environment to operate certain technological systems will emerge. inadequacy of the view of population as merely a dependent variable has been demonstrated above. (See Ch, 2 §B.3.a). Rather than, theoretically, viewing population - its and distribution - as the final outcome of a complex relations or, pratically, halting when an assessment population growth or decline has been made,.here". question about population provides the starting pofnt, W were the essential attributes of the emergent populafi landscape in the early Iron Age Highlands, and how Was th population landscape determinative for the conduct 'of agriculture? This orientation will produce some new insights into the nature of early Israelite society and agricultural systems. Yet the exploratory nature of the following dis:" cussion must be admitted•. The lack of demographic data bewailed by Gottwald will also afflict this attempt to relate the change in the population landscape to the conduct of agriculture in the early Iron Age Highlands. Cautious conclusions based on presently available data are no substitute for the results of a research strategy designed particularly with the collection and analysis of demographic data in the forefront. There can be no question that this latter is precisely what is needed if a true picture of early Israel and its agricultural economy is to be sketched. Such a necessity does not confront the study of ancient Syria and Palestine alone. As recently as 1979 ethnoarchaeologist Carol Kramer issued a similar general call: Additional empirical data on population size and composition, and their relationship to site size, house size, and number of household objects, are sorely needed, as are data on the nature, causes, and consequences of population stability or change, and variations in rate of change, particularly in non-industrial societies (I979b: 10). B. Settlement Pattern The basic fact of the expansion of settlement in the 138

Chapter Six - Population Highlands can be displayed in numerical terms. The results of site surveys. that .have been conducted over the last two decades show 136 early Iron Age settlements in the Highlands of Judah, Samaria, and Upper Galilee compared with only twenty-four Late Bronze sites, constituting nearly a five-fold increase (Campbell 1968; Aharoni 1957; Kochavi 1972). Such a numerical description of the settlement pattern reveals little about the essential attributes of this population, however, save for the obvious fact that it occupied more sites. What is needed is an analysis of this pattern of settlement in terms of the three levels of which it may be conceived as consisting (Trigger 1968: 53). On the broadest level, attention must be paid to the zonal pattern, the nature of the distribution of communities throughout the region. This is not only a matter of the number of sites in a given area (the density of €""c settlement) but also the location of these sites, relative '''' to each other, relative to particular geomorphological conditions, and relative to lines of communication. The layouts of the individual communities present another level of analysis: the arrangement of structures, installations, and public places within a site. Of particular importance from the demographic standpoint are the area of the settlement and the density of the constituent dwelling units as well as the patterning of the latter which may give some clue as to the social structure. Finally, the individual structures, installations, and public places that constitute a settlement must be brought into view. The nature of the buildings whether domestic or special-purpose, must be delineated. In the case of domestic buildings, the composition of the domestic group as well as its use of the dwelling area represent vital elements in the determination of settlement population size. An analysis of the expanded settlement in the Highlands along these lines requires not only surface-survey data, but data from the excavations of. a fairly even distribution of settlements. Fortunately the number of both newly founded and renewed settlements of the early Iron Age that have been excavated has grown markedly in the last decade (reviewed in: Aharoni 1982: 159-179; Lapp 1967; A. Mazar 1981: 32-36; de Vaux 1978: 673-679). (See Map 3 [p.326].) 1. Community Layout Beginning with the level of community layout, certain characterizations of these settlements can be made. The 139

Hopkins- The HighIandsof Canaan settlements were smaUbyanystandard~St~~~rrepClrtSf:' theiave~a8e'sizeoftheviIJages in th:e;Highlaflds()f,JJudah Samaria:wasabout.5, town .orgaruzatien, Te $Os advances a stage further in that it contains n~t onlY"/J~ of Jinked houses, but public buildings and acentralJxstr~t (Br:aemer 1982: 20)• Yet it too includes some isolated hotises and much empty space in its midst. Noting the existencehf building 1000 at some 150 meters from the house chain atTel Masos, Kempinskisuggests that the "fortified settlement served only as a nucleus for a wider scattered settlement" (1978: 37). Even if the chain did not have defensive functions, this arrangement of a settlement nucleus or focal point accompanied by a scattering of isolated houses or activity loci has its parallels somewhat later in this same northern Negev. In the tenth century, Horvat Haluqim, Ramat Matred, and. Horvat Ritrna present clear examples of dispersed settlement in this region (Braemer 1982: 18-19). Another type of house arrangement may have had defensive functions according to Bra who int~rJ: ,t~.Jhe clustering of domestic buildings a ..., "in this way. "This grouping of houses centered on a point," he writes, ..was' able already to constitute of kind of defense against the exterior" (1982: 22). Callaway has reported three such clusters of houses distributed around a central court in area S at Kh, Raddana (usually including one larger house along with smaller ones) and has drawn implications about social structure rather than defensive needs (1974: 92; also Harmon 1981: 13). Obviously the two are not incompatible. Whether the distribution of pottery and artifacts in these houses will support the social-structural interpretation is yet unknown (compare McClellan's attempt (1977) at this type of analysis). The recently excavated site o1f~has produced an as yet unparalleled sitearra,ngement:'The domestic dwelling is adjoined by a large enclosed courtyard built of massive stone walls. One would expect that the inhabitants attributed to this courtyard an importance commensurate with the effort required by its construction, though exactly what this was is not certain. The excavators. guess that the courtyards served as corrals for livestock (A. Mazar 1981: 11-12). The presence of large courtyards at Giloh, a nuclear house chain and dispersed buildings at Tel Masos, and converging clusters of houses iat Kh, Raddana and tAi gives the impression of greatly varying densities of buildings and associated structures at these sites. This impression may be quantified, but even where precise data are available, 141

o

Hopkins -The Highlands of Canas 11 the methodological ;problem "Of >proportionality ~hedges usefulness,lof ,thel'inUmb~rs.ilJnless• 'the.. entire;stratum panieulat"lsite :hasroeerr.;excavated; it lis dangerousdto'as that the. ,excavatedPQrtipo;accurately represents' the site whole;; in1Jterms10f;;the:mumbers .of and kihdsbf buildin Giloh, .for rexample,wouldcontain ·tenoomestic. units Ii the o.one excavated if . the;: area excavated>represeot~ porportionally the site as a whole. Thus one could calculate a domestic building to area ratio of between 14-20/ha for this site. Six . domestic,buildingsarecertain wlthinthe 0.14ha excavated port ionofTel Masosarea A, yielding a buHdingtV,.strQ~g.~ciati~QsU\vith"partiCt;t1ar ?buH (~Ocg.;.p~!e-ri}°lJthjar~r*ith;in~ustrialbllildings)twhile·'•. a~e .rTl()re .the site ·plan~ but <Shiloh reports nine: eight Uingooits andapublicstore-house (l980b: 29). Reducing if;~t a.

158

Chapter Six - Population watershed. In the east-west running basins of northern Upper \1Ga1llee Maroni surveyed a chain of Canaanite (through Late !rBronz~)cities including : ,.

.

.

lrJ,f~!{:~ .6f. ~his·.popu1~ti~~.;picture,.·h~.\.lt'~ver,·;itcO\,l

argued:thatterracing is the absolute minimum require of any> and alLagriculture in the Highlands opened up in early Iron Age.ln most discussions of agricultural settlem in .the Highlands terrace systems are, in fact, viewed minimum level of special treatment set by the environiment;~;;.;p;. a level that must be met without regard for the social forms it demands from the settlers. Ron labels as known" the fact that "agricultural regions of Medit~rranean cannot exist without terracing" (I 966: Geus asserts that ·!it was the terraces which made aglricul1:url~.·· possible on the slopes" (1975: 70), and Borowski goes so to claim that "settlement . could not have been ac:hH;:VE~d;;;;; without" terracing of freshly deforested hillslopes see· also Reifenberg 1955: 35). For Carol Meyers, terracing techniques are a prior condition for the Highlands. She views terraces as among the technologtcat innovations that "resolved the environmental made this demographic shift [the settlement of Highlands} possible" (1978: 95). There is good reason to believe, however, that terracing not the minimum threshold of intensity at which agricultural systems in the Highlands must operate. The reasoning which supports the view that terracing is a prior condition lacks solid foundation. Most of those who hold this view that terraces are a necessary first step, base their claim on the susceptibility of the soil of the Highlands-hillsides to erosion and on the acknowledged fact that terraces are the effective way to prevent its devastating consequences.Cropscar4 however, .be grown successfully on slopes without terracess even the 20-30°· slopes which are prevalent in the Highlands (see also Huntingford 1932: 335). The risks of soil erosion may be perfectly obvious to modern commentators, but examples of short-sightedness among pre-industrial cultivators are numerous (Symons 1978: 26). There is no reason to suppose that early cultivators in the Highlands were any better prepared to recognize and heed the signs of soil erosion than many of their successors. It has already been noted that the. assumption that cultivators farm their environments under' the> influence of long-term considerations of continued agricultural viability is overly optimistic. The combination 9! 180

Chapter Seven - Water Conservation & Control these two factors- the ability of slopes to support cultivation, although not in the long run.and the blindness of many .traditional farmlng . communities to the devastating impact of soil erosion and its long-term consequences - casts great doubt over assertions about the indispensability of terracing to Highland settlement. These considerations may be sufficient to dislodge the view that the growth of the settlement of the Highlands in the early Iron Age was accompanied as a matter of course by the construction of terrace systems. They should, in any case, make .plain that the terracing technology provided no pull toward settlement in the Highlands and cannot be regarded as the "technological innovation" which permitted that settlement. It is much more cogent to assume that terracing in the Highlands was a response of the Highland communities to exigencies encountered as the duration of their settlement progressed. This is precisely the view that Spencer and Hale put forth in the context of their attempt to account for the beginnings of terracing. Against the supposition that concern over soil erosion prompted the development of terracing techniques, they argue that the "concern over soil erosion is a late development." "Soil erosion, and its prevention," Spencer and Hale assert, becomes a concern only to peoples who have long occupied a given landscape, who become gradually aware of growing scarcity of agricultural lands, who must face the task of enlarging their agricultural productivity, or who must face the task of regaining productivity in a landscape suffering from soil erosion (1961: 26-27). Such a view recognizes the interaction of food-producing communities with their environment as a process of moving toward and falling away from a situation of relative equilibrium in which both the human community and its environment vary over time. Considered from the standpoint of their roles as stabilizers of the soil environment of the Highlands, terrace systems may not have played an important role in the Highland settlement and cannot be rearded as a minimum level of special treatment demanded by the environment. Yet the primary importance of terraces for the ancient Highland agriculturalists would not have been their service in the soil balance but their role in the water balance of their regions. The contribution of terracing to water conservation and

181

Hopkins - The Highlands of Canaan control has been outlined above. Chref among its values is" control. of • • runoHand •the 'increase iindePJ:~~futts~o:~ge: water 'penetration that ' it '. provides.·'iThe"impt1rtancexof,tfl capabilities' can be made ,dear' by, recaUingtwo 'observati about theclimate of· theHighlands.;,iFirst,the>concentra of the Highlands' rains in a shortrsea:son and consequently 'high intensity' resurt.. insignificant 'i. rates runoff. Between 12 and 38 percent av able rainwater is lost to agriculture as runoff. (See ",hnVip5'/'{ Ch.4 §A.5.) While farming communities can do nothing crease the intensity of rainfall ,which their lands re(:eive;;"i/' terracing provides a way of significantly reducing the amount' of losses to runoff. Similarly, the increased penetration rainwater which terracing makes possible is a advantage in a seasonal climate where the soil ordinari carries no water reserves from one growing season next. Terraced hill slopes will experience a replenishment of ground water supplies and thus be rendered's less vulnerable to the vagaries of the rainfall regime. both of these contributions of terracing to water conservation to increase the stability and the productivity of agriculture, Such benefits, moreover, are observable in the vear-to-vear operation of an agricultural system and appear as oositrve gains in crop yields and drought resistance. This contrasts with the gains of soil conservation which are primarily, preventive in nature. It is in their role in the water balance of Highlands' agriculture that terraces could more plausibly be viewed as a minimum threshold for agricultural activity. "The art of terracing," writes Davis in his study of hill country dry farming, "made agriculture more dependable in a land of varying resources" (1981: 9). Yet even viewed from this perspective terraces are no necessary prior condition for agricultural settlement, though they ·do appear to offer a great adaptive advantage in the uncertain environment. The character of the population landscape 'of the early Iron Age does not warrant the conclusion that the advantage of increased reliability offered by terracing had become compelling at this time, even if i the necessary, input of labor could have been mustered.' Under different conditions that would have made stable productivity a more desirable and essential goal, the construction of terraces for the purpose of water conservation would be a vital feature of Highland agricultural systems. It might be possible to venture beyond this conclusion if one could be more certain. about the dating ," of 182

Chapter Seven - Water Conservation &. Control agricultural terraces which litter the Highlands today or which r'are'ofalong,:"tenured developing community to demands for a 1l)0r~stab1E; dependable productive regime, whatever the formw those demands might have taken. C. Irrigation One of the reasons why terracing with its efforts at water conservation and control would recommend itself to Highland communities confronted with the intensify their agricultural systems is the dearth of possibilities for achieving agricultural stability. through werrer.•• management. Stream irrigation, to take the most example, is possible only to the most restricted extent area poor in perennial streams and rich in deeply valleys (Dalman [1932, 2: 31] notes the absence of a rechruca] expression for irrigated land in the Bible). Cisterns reservoirs, known from early periods in the Highlands, serve only a limited agricultural purpose because of their normal locations. Areas in proximity to springs, on the other hand, probably attracted settlement from the earliest times and were the focus of intensive agricultural efforts throughout Highland history. For example, the potential of irrigation through the "portholes" in the Siloam tunnel through which water could be spread to fields in the Kidron Valley has often been noted (Shiloh 1980a: 17). Ron's study of terraces in spring areas makes plain the intensive efforts of cultivators to avail themselves of perennial water supplies. Surrounding the springs in the Judean Hills, Ron found al) extremely high proportion of elaborate irrigation wor~ consisting of collecting pools and reservoirs, irrigation conveyors and channels, and the leveled terraces to which.the spring-water was directed (1966: 111-116). While the present form of the irrigation works does not permit a date earlier than Roman times, the presence throughout the HighlandsiI) all periods of so much attention to ensuring the water supply in all its available forms suggests that irrigation systems around springs are also ancient. From spring-based irrigation systems, favorably situated communities could reap-r-a productive bonanza which would extend not only to dependable, high-yield harvests, but would. enable two 186

Chapter Seven - '\Xi ater Conservation & Control

harvests in place of the one generally permitted under Mediterranean conditions (Vogelstein 1894: 18; Semple 1931: 377-378). D. Field Techniques

Terracing and irrigation, however limited, are the two major strategies for water conservation and control which could have helped Highland communities achieve a more productive and especially a more stable and flexible agricultural system. Various field techniques would have constituted another set of strategies, one which, while less dramatic than major terracing and irrigation construction and invisible in the archaeological record, would have also contributed to water conservation. As Walton has put it, "the principles of moisture conservation are basic to dry-farming practices," and practices based upon them would surely have characterized agriculture in the Highlands (1969: lIS). The creation of a "dry mulch" through repeated and shallow plowing stands as the most important of the field techniques designed to conserve precious soil moisture (Forbes 1976: 7; Walton 1969: 119; Barrels 1939, 1: 312). The plowing serves to break capillarity in the soils, and thus while the upper soil layer becomes extremely desiccated, the moisture of the lower layers is protected from evaporation. Weeding also contributes to maintaining the soil moisture by reducing transpiration through weed leaf surfaces. We will have the opportunity to discuss these and other field techniques in more detail when we take up fallow practices and the labor demands of field work below. Suffice it to note that the effect of many of these practices on the agricultural water balance will be a decisive consideration in their adoption and use.

!

I I, t

lS7

CHAPTER EIGHT AGRICULTURAL OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES: SOIL CONSERVATION AND FERTILITY MAINTENANCE

CoU~ct.ing Du.ng

189

fur Fuel.

Chapter Eight AGRICULTURAL OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES: SOIL CONSERVATION AND FERTILITY MAIl\TENANCE A. Introduction NCUMBENT upon every traditional farming community is the task of protecting its soil environment and conserving the plant nutrients that it provides. Several features of the Highlands combine to heighten the challenge of this task for its agricultural settlements. Chief among these is the great erosive power of the region's intensive rainfall which threatens hill-farming communities with the loss of their soil base and impels preventive measures for long-term survival. The dry, seasonal climate limits the rate of soil formation and the characteristic vegetational cover is not generous in its contribution of organic material. To meet these challenges, several avenues for the maintenance of soil fertility and the protection of the soil base were open in the early Iron Age highlands. These included both measures which serve to restore nutrients to the soil and those which act to temper their loss. Among the techniques which serve either or both of these objectives are fallowing, crop rotation, fertilization, and terracing. The place of these and other techniques in the soil conservation regime adopted by Highlands' cultivators might be better elucidated if accurate information about the nutrient demands and yields of crops relative to the innate fertility of the Highlands' soil were available. In the absence of such data, a description of these practices must rely upon ethnographic analogy, agricultural science, and scattered classical, biblical, and talmudic references and allusions to agricultural practices. The latter must especially be treated with caution since one can scarely be certain when an ancient source, be it Yarro or the lawgiver in Exodus, speaks idealistically or reports descriptively about the agricultural system of its time. 191

Hopkins - The Highlands of Canaan B. Fallowing and Land-Use Intensity All but those agricultural systems characterized by most intensive land-use allow their land units some period(~ rest subsequent to cultivation. This agricultural fallowing.iit basically a strategy for halting decline in crop yields due the exhaustion of soil nutrients and the build-up of endemis;S("?\' pests and diseases over the course of the cropping period. The.. fallow allows the land a rest .from the nutrient demands of the crops and a chance for replenishment of these nutrients.:? The fallow also breaks the natural pest cycle which permits diseases and harmful insects associated with particular crops to return year after year. The ability of a fallow period to accomplish these. two . objectives, especially the.Jor depends to a large degree upon its length. As an integra.l of an agricultural system, the length of the fallowingp is, in turn, dependent upon awhole range of variabI~s. shifting cultivation regimes of the' tropics, for examp where leaching-diminished soil nutrients are exhausted aft only two or three years of cultivation and land is plentiful, the period of fallow may extend to some twenty years. This lengthy rest permits the' complete restoration of thenatuhH vegetation of the land, which is the key toreplenishment\6f soil fertility. Under short-fallow systems, like those of the Mediterranean region, the fallow-period vegetation never becomes more than a thin covering of weeds and grasses which falls far short of the restoration of the natural vegetation (Grigg 1980: 37-38). To the extent that weeds and grasses also deplete the available soil nutrients, theIr presence may even be a negative factor under short-falloW' systems. For this reason short-fallowing techniques are only incomplete vehicles in the restoration of soil fertility (Russell 1973: 336 lists the conditions which make for good fallowing).'''· Besides contributing to the restoration of soil fertility and the control of deleterious pests and diseases, the fallow also can play a role in conserving precious soil moisture (Gras 1925: 25; Grigg 1980: 34; Semple 1931: 406; contra Beaumont, Blake, and Wagstaff 1976: 165). It can play this role when it is correctly managed, that is, when the land is not simply left to sit passively for a season but is properly worked with this end in mind. The most efficacious fallowing "requires constant husbandry" (Walton 1969: 120; see also Semple 1931': 386). The evapotranspiration that robs the soil of the wate~ reserves it accumulates during the rainy' season ordinarfly 192

Chapter Eight - Soil Conservation & Fertility leaves a cropped or unworked field devoid of moisture long before the end of the summer months. (See above, Ch, 4 §A.5);Theevaporationof water from the soil can be halted, however,byrepeated plowings of the fallowed ground during summer months following the cessation of the rainy season, a practice known as soil mulching. The plowings serve to break capillarity by creating a deflocculated layer of soil through which the subsoil moisture cannot be drawn up. "Below this dry top layer," reports Forbes, "the soil remains surprisingly damp" (1976: 7). It must be admitted, however, that repeated plowings of fallow ground would be a labor-intensive practice carried out under the heat of the summer sun. Thus Borowski has argued that'v'since plowing was a time and effort consuming activity, it is sage to assume that when sowing did not take place, as during the seventh year or the year of the Jubilee, no plowing was performed" (1979: 79). This observation has some cogency especially given the demographic characteristics of the early Iron Age Highlands. Against the gainsaying of the practice of plowing of fallow ground as a rule, however, it must be pointed out that all agricultural practices are dependent for their performance on the availability of labor, a diminution of which might, of course, lead to the neglect of many important elements of a stable agricultural system. Thus the plowing of fallow land is also conditioned by factors other than the desire to avoid any additional labor. Furthermore, it may be that the plowing of the failow resulted in labor-saving during the cropping seasons, as, for example, a reduction of weeding due to the destruction of weeds by plowing (Forbes 1976: 7). Another labor-saving result of summer plowing is the prevention of the formation of a hard crust that plagues clayey soil that is baked all summer long without relief (Walton 1969: 120). Where the importance of water conservation is high, the plowing of fallow ground was, accordingly,an integral element of fallow practice. This bare-ground fallowing (as opposed to green fallowing which rotates grain crops with leguminous pulses or grasses) and its associated practices function to remove land from the demands of continuous cultivation, aid in the restoration of soil fertility, break the natural cycle of noxious plant pests and diseases, conserve accumulated soil moisture, cut down on weeds, and render the preparation of fields in the following year less arduous. The practice is not, however, without its baneful effects. In particular, the absence of ground Cover on the fallowed land during the winter months 193

Hopkins - The' Highlands of Canaan of heavier rain makes/the' soH of the fallowed land .that more vulnerable to erosion (Beaumont, . Blake;' and "'Wag 197(,:45; Butzerd97lf:64).;Repeatedplowings.exacerbcit vulnerability and also, open the 'door,~ider{towinde (Walton;A 969:';.120). Thus;the roleiof·thefallow· i conversation' is double-edged. From the. standpoint of fallowing •practice, what was; intensity of land use in the agricultural systems of High Canaan, that.is, what crop-to-fallow ratio characterized agriculture? Before attempting to answer this mustdirst remember.that the variability the en vironment of Highland agriculture circumscribes usefulness of any general consideration of land-use in1~erlsi1ty" Combining with a diverse geomorphology and a heterogeno rainfall map, the wide spectrum of soils" with theirvaryi inherent fertilities and physical settings,also presents limi to ageneralpicture.ofland-use intensity. One would not all be surprised by the operation of a relatively higl1~~,; intensity agriculture in certain especially advantageous loct (e.g., arable land surrounding a water source). Even in,a( uniform envlronrnentv-however, land will likely be farmed ina; variety of intensities corresponding to natural growth anq development within a given community, not to mention, locational factors,': Thus, from all angles one would expect that land use in. the Highlands was characterized by a mix of; intensities during most periods. But what was the typical land-use intensity? The so-called "sabbatical-year law" of Exodus 23.10-11 commands the; fallowing of fields one year out of seven. If such were the agricultural practice generally characteristic of . the Highlands during the early Iron Age, then one would have feY label the system as one of extremely high intensity, bordering on continuous or permanent cultivation /27/. It is plain,: however, that a considerably lower ratio of crop to fallow period has prevailed in the Highlands, as well as in the restor the eastern Mediterranean, throughout its history of settlement. As an example, discussing the question of the observance of the sabbatical year in the Second Temple period, Vogelstein notes that one arrives at the view from. talmudic sources "that a single fallow year in seven did not suffice and that the ground must have been left fallow more often for the fallow comprised the most appropriate means to supply the ground with freshvitaHty" (1&94: 4&). Based on literary sources and on the practices of contempor-e arytraditional farming communities, it appears that the. 194

Chapter Eight - SoH Conservation &: Fertility sab1)atical ,year Iaw, cloesnotclescribe or enjoin a compr~gensivei9r iflclusi"e~ystem otagri1 ly Ie

2. Crop Rotation

s, :t )f Jt )s

ts s, ~

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The same problem of data limitations beleaguers attempts to specify the broader pattern of crop rotation in which any fallow system played a part. One must agree with Barrois: "One cannot prove ••• any methodical attempt at crop rotation for the ancient epoch" (1939, 1: 312). Yet it is worthwhile opening this question just to take note of the possibilities of and constraints on broader systems of agricultural rotation, especially the relationship between summer and winter cultivation. Relying upon contemporary practice in Palestine, Gustav Dalman has paid considerable attention to the two types of cropping arrangements which the seasonal climate prompted in the region (1932, 2: 130136). Since grains and most legumes demand significant quantities of water for the greatest period of their growth, while crops like chick. peas and sesame only need a moist ground for the germination of the seed and demand only meager quantities of moisture for maturation, dry-season and wet-season cultivation patterns have emerged. As Dalman 197

napkins - The Highlands of Canaan ~tt: the task pi the farmer is lIto appropriatetim~andin.expedientways

sees

proceed boto>at as well as.to·e th,e ..'. dght;.;reJationship',r: between. Cbothc"kinds,\l;... have formed part of an agricultural system in early Age highlands (in addition to the literature cited earlier in this chapter, see Alt 1966: 103-171; Cazelles 1946; Jepsen 1927; Morgenstern 1928; Paul 1970; Rost 1965: 255-259 on th¥; date and provenance of this legislation). The most iml'ortan~f observation has already been made. The stipulations of thT,. sabbatical-year law, it was shown above, do not encompas~,~ complete system of agricultural land use: fallowing wasmus!J;., l more frequent than the one year out of seven which the l'i!:~t I enjoins. With this observation we have avoided the Pitfa.Vr'.. which has trapped many scholars who, apparently. in thT~/ absence of any appreciation of agriculture, have taken th T I sabbatical-year law to describe the totality of agricUltural!.. practice in ancient Israel. Such thinking leads, of course, t a l the quandary of how community farming so intensively coulc:hi ever survive the absence of a full year's harvest. Talk about idealistic legislation begins, and the search is on for evidence • about when and if the sabbatical year was ever observed. These are all legitimate concerns, of course, but naivete about the intensity of land use in the ancient Highlands spurs the eagerness to address them before the possible place of

I

200

Chapter Eight - Soli Conservation (\( Fertill ry the sabbatical year in the largeragricultural system has been properly·considered. How,wouldacommun!ty-wide fallow occurring every seven yearsfitinto.the biennial fallow practice? Beginning with the strategy that sees a farmer's holdings divided into two parts so that half is cropped and half is fallowed every year, one recognizes immediately· that the sabbatical year would break the normal rotation for only that half of the farmer's holdings which were scheduled to be cropped in that year. While this has no effect on the amount of crops which the community would do without as a result of the sabbatical year, since a full year's produce would be eliminated regardless of the actual percentage of the total land that was idled for this reason, it does make plain that the farmer was not left without options as regards augmenting production in the year previous to the sabbatical fallow. In this year previous to the sabbatical, the farmer could increase production by eliminating the fallow (F) of an area (P) just cropped (C). In order to compensate for this heavy use, this area would then be rested not only for the sabbatical year (5), but also for the subsequent year as the other half of the farmland (Q) continued in its regular biennial rotation. This is illustrated diagrammatically below. P

C F

C

F

Q

F

C

F

C F C S

C C 5

23456

7

C F

C

F

C F C

F

C C 5

234

567

F

C

S

Fig. 5. Sabbatical year in biennial rotation. If possible by virtue of other elements of the system (especially labor . supply), this momentary increase of intensity would augment production though yields would surely be depressed in the field which bore the brunt of the increase. Such a theoretical model for fitting the sabbatical-year fallow in the normal rotation is not intended to make it appear as a provision that could be handled matter-of-factly by the communities of the ancient Highlands, but only to render it more comprehensible and less menacing as an agricultural institution. When the widespread views of the sabbatical year as the center around which all agriculture in the Highlands revolved or as the single means for the restoration of fertility adopted by the ancients on magical

201

Hopkins» The Highlands of.Canaan grgunQ$" <m~ abandooed,aplausible' place. ioritimrH" agriculture, cannot so easily be ruled out. Other . asp ~h~rcagr~,"t!;~j.; One final and vital point remains to be made in concludi~," our consideration of land-use intensity and fallow practic:!. We must not fail to note the theoretical bent oftheaoove discussion and the fact that itdoes not take the variability'~~ the '. agricultural .environment •into account: Over the Iot.'lg . term, no rotational scheme will flow smoothly (Dalmari1932," 2: 133). Room must be left for interruptions incultivatisn i t which are not intrinsic to the fallow system but are the result of droughts, outbreaks of plant pests or diseases, or social instability. To suppose any form or rigidity in the pattern of cultivation in an environment such as that of the Highlarid,s would be especially mistaken, and we must add to its natural variability !berelativejnstabilityof each historical epoch. The willingness of Highlands' communities to make adjustlJl~[lts)ni"inr,"r\,'f'i the fertilizer value of animal excreta since it both dung together and absorbs the urine which contains a portion of the valuable nutrients (White 197015: 124). The circumscription of stall-feeding of farm animals imposed by the seasonal climate means that the compost pil~: receives only a small portion of the potentially available manure and probably cannot be counted on to playa vital r~l~; in maintaining soil- fertility for field crops. The amounfo~; labor involved in carting the compost from the compost pil~,i presumably ,located near the stalls, to the fields as weH~~! that required for the husbandry of the decomposition proce~' no 'i' doubt deterred 'farmers -frorn' increasing attention' to'" cemposting, Manure could also be applied to the fields by a less'; demanding method, however. The community's flocks and' herds, including those, returned from dry-season pastures~ would be grazed on fallow fields, orchards, and harvested fields where ''the most efficient manuring machines known"! attended to the chore of fertilization (White 197015: 134). Exoa 22.5, which defines responsibility and sets restitutio~~ in the case of the trespassing of, grazing animals on another's property, can be best understood.. against" just such ,~c;~ background. At night the flocks were folded on the fields 'in'

206

Chapter Eight - Soil Conservation & Fertility alternating locations so that their excreta would be distributed. evenlys-Dalman-sexplains that one cannot doubt the existence of this practice in arrtiquity- "because the need for fodder as welJas the (desire to provide manure no doubt at that timebrougbt about the nighttime stationing of herds on harvested and fallowed fields II (1932, 2: 145). Grazing on fallow fields not only deposited manure but also served the purpose of eradicating weeds. Grazing on harvested fields permitted animals to feed on the stubble at a time when the beginning of the dry season had faded the greens of other pastures, The dung directly applied by sheep and goats would not, of course, be as efficacious as carefully conserved compost in supplying nutrients to the soil since it would be exposed to the elements and become thoroughly dried out or leached. It may be, however, that this paler form of manuring fit more realistically into the agricultural systems of the ancient Highlands since it both required less labor and demanded less soil moisture for the plant growth that it supported. Compost might have been reserved for vegetable gardens or kitchen gardens which were worked more intensively and supplied with greater quantities of water. Besides manure, other types of organic fertilizers were available to the farmers of the early Iron Age Highlands. These need only be noted since they played no central role in the agricultural systems. Semple (1931: 407) and Dalman (1932, 2: 141) report that it was a common practice to burn stubble in the fields and thus provide an ash fertilizer. The Book of the Covenant contains a precept (Exod 22.6) which most likely has in view the use of fire as a tool in the fields, though it is impossible to tell if the burning of stubble is involved unless the mention of stacked grain is a clue that harvest is in progress. The importance of stubble as a source of nourishment for. flocks as well as the inherent inefficiencies of volatilizing most of its worthwhile constituents by burning suggest that this practice did not occupy an important place in Highland agriculture. The case for the use of wood ash as fertl1lzer is, at least in theory, different, since it is a very rich source of nutrients. Wood ash contains no nitrogen, but is very high in phosphorus and potassium. By studying its occurrences in the Hebrew Bible, Borowski has shown that one kind of ash, "desen," consisting of the fat soaked wood ashes from burnt offerings, found an agricultural application once it was transported out of the cultic sphere (1979: 221-223). One can scarely imagine that "desen" was available in an amount significant enough 207

Hopkins- The Highlands of Canaan to have had anything . but a very minor. role in Hig .agriculture or., that tre.es;andotherwoody: growth w . burned for the sole purpose oicreating ash fertilizer• .B as' a . method of . field . clearance' -with. its , imro enhancement of soH.fertility is another matter altogeth D. '. Terrace Systems Finally .we come again to terracing techniques which been discussed above in depth. Terracing plays a dual rc>l~ soil conservation and fertility maintenance by both provi a shelf where organic. matter and minerals can accurnul thus ': replenishing the soil, and by preventing the 10 the .soil base. to erosion. .\Ve have already noted a (Ch, 7 , decision ~botitthe first operations of the agricultural The misimaic cataloging of four plowings - one in the summer, after the harvest, one after the first rain, one plowing prior to planting, and one final plowing to seed -" serves only as an ideal whose dependence on agricultural practice is difficult to judge (Vogelstein 1~94:, 33-36). Based on his observation of traditional farming int.Q~2 Judean hills, Turkowski enumerates two plowings,. sinc,~'; "cereals must have twice broken up ground," but alsol1ot~f> deviations 'from this norm (1969: 28; see also AschenQren~~r.; 1972: 58~~The purpose of the first would be to render thes6i}f; more p()rous to therains .and less inviting for weeds'11)~f second plowing .would be linked to planting, making {inilC preparation for sowing. Isa 28.24' may refer to these same:, two plowing objectives by its use of the verbs "ptb" (lito open'! the soil) and "sdd" (lito harrow" the soil), the latter further defined. by the verb "swh" ("to level" for broadcast sowing;~ see also Job 39.10). An additional plowing to cover the seed i~ possible, but whether rowed or broadcast, there wer~c available less arduous means for covering seeds than another" run with the plow (e.g., dragging a bundle of sticks or grazing' herds over the fields). 'Whatever the normal practice, variety would be anticipated.AsVogelstein puts it: "Plowing method was not uniform throughout.' Local circumstances and

214

Chapter Nine - Risk Spreading & Labor Optimization differences among the farmers with respect to intelligence and industry bad a diversity oisoiI-working operations as theirconsequence",H894: ·33).,/< Decisive amongcthe determinants of the conduct of plowing apd planting was the farmer's decision regarding timing. On land that had been fallowed the previous year, plowing was unfeasible because of the hardness of the sun-baked soil, Working the soil had to wait until the rains softened its surface (Antoun 1972: 8; Borowski 1979: 79). Land recently cropped could be plowed earlier. Yet for all intents and purposes the coming of the winter rains initiated the agricultural year and was the key in the farmer's decision making process as well. Here the variability of the Highlands' precipitation regime is decisive. The timing of the first rains is not constant e . If the rainy season were to begin early, the farmer could plant early and risk the night frost in the hills, a lengthy rainfall pause before the heart of the rainy season, or a heavy spring rain that might beat down precociously tall stalks, hoping for a good harvest from a long growing season. If the rains began late, then the farmer would be forced to plant at a later than optimal time and would risk in a diminished season immature grains at harvest. Yet whether the rains began early, late, or normally, the unpredictable shape of the rainfall regime through the season spelled risk regardless of the moment chosen for planting. Thus the variable environment encouraged a variable plowing and planting schedule in order to spread the risk to the crops (Feliks 1971a: 376). As Dalman writes: Because the question is always to what extent the rains will fail to fall over the course of the season, the whole sowing must absolutely not take place after the first drenching rain. It is necessary to carry out an early as well as a late sowing so as to make the most of the different possibilities of the weather (I932, 2: 176). This practice of staggered sowing is one of the primary strategies for spreading risk available to the farming communities of the Highlands. To estimate the value of this strategy one need only recall the vulnerability of newly sprouted crops due to the absence of water reserves in the soil at the beginning of the season and the fact that the most frequently experienced rainfall pattern is the multiple peaked season in which distinct periods of rain alternate with intervals of dry weather. The dangers for the subsistence cultivator inherent in relying upon any narrow period of 215

Hopkins - The Highlands of Canaan ...

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plantjI'lg, that is,1r\banking upon. havingcorrectlyanticipai' the rainfall. pa~t~r(h~anscarcely~()y~~estimatE:!d. . One .can picture the intersect1oncof:the;dimaticyeCl, theproduction~. cydeLot.; particular) icrop$~~. oo~.f9r.~:li~? cOI1Hf\U~~ ...Q).~ ,~anqH::;~.91 s()nz~·.p10~p()i.ms: . . as . otne,( ·'.I..lt~ I •... '. .•..•. ~9j~t~)';. thrpughgut .·ttle'· Ir;pl) evidTf\ce.i)(~~~,la? . . sleeps:which permits a .communal'i interpretation (Ruth 3.2), and the.threshing floor at the gate of Samaria which strongly favors it (l Kgs 22.10). Turkowski, howeverv.reports-that threshing ..floors used collectively were characteristic of the Judean Hills before the contemporary era of individualized.iarming (I 969: 105). One of the great limitations of ancient technology speaks for the existence of a number of threshing floors, located propritiously for win~ nowing, but/at no great distance from the grain-producing. fields: transportation technology was primitive and ineffic;;;o" lent, The time and effort required to transport the harvest to; the threshing floor could be decreased by increasing its proximity to the fields. Sheaves of harvested stalks were especially bulky and difficult to manage (see the simile in. Amos 2.13), especial1y when compared to sacks of cleaned grain. The proliferation of threshing fields would decrease the extent of .communal '.cooperation entailed in this operation of . the harvest. In less secure times, however, threshing floors at some remove from the village would be subject to raiding, a circumstance which would reassert the value of communal cooperation (see Judg 6.3-6, 11, and I Sam 23.1). The necessary intensity of harvest and the high degree attention that it demands (due to the need and desire to harvest the fields at the most propritlous time and to the nature of the sequential operations of the total harvest scene themselves) lead to the conclusion that harvest time marks a . peak in the annual curve of labor demand /34/. If the labor requirement (work hours per period of time) is at its highest during harvest, then a community's ability to meet this demand at this time will be crucial. The amount of labor available at harvest time may impose a limit on the extent of crop production and, thus, on the extent of the areas that can be profitably cropped. At harvest time labor supply appears to be more decisive than the availability of land resources in determining the extent of production. Practices (such as staggered sowing) and environmental circumstances (such as variegated land) which soften this limit are those which result in a spreading of labor at least at this crucial time.

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Chapter Nine - Risk Spreading &. Labor Optimization f'ressur:eswhich work in the opposite direction would stirnulatemeanstolncrease the availability of labor. Given the absence- of developments toward more efficient harvesting •technology such as an "improved" sickle, such means .\Vqulci likely be social in nature. 3. Vine and Tree Crops Alongside field crops, vine and tree crops held an integral place in the agricultural systems of the ancient Highlands. These crops were crucial not only for their essential and highly desirable products, but additionally for their fit in the agricultural calendar dominated by the production of grains. Tree and vine crops contribute to the diversity of the Highlands' subsistence means in a way that does not sharply compete.with but rather complements the other foci of agricultural energies. The complementarity of trees and vine crops results from the pattern of care required by established vineyards and orchards. Grape vines and fig, olive, and other fruit orchards obviously entail a much longer lead time than field crops between planting and harvest, but established orchards and vineyards are stable for many years and yield their produce with a minimum of care. While this is not a matter of "complete repose" as Barrois exaggerates 0939, 1: 323), the crop producing tasks can be undertaken fairly leisurely and in an extensive rather than intensive manner. Lag time, durability, and degree of attention required vary, of course, with the type of vine or tree. The olive leads the field in both lag time and durability, a result of its slow growth pattern. Full yields are obtained only from trees that have grown for several decades, but they remain productive almost indefinitely (Boardman 1976: 189; Aschenbrenner 1972: 53). The fig and the vine require a decade or more before the beginning of significant production and generally do not survive more than a half-century (Aschenbrenner 1972: 55-56). The operations of the agricultural year for vine, fig, and olive are similar in the fact that each requires cultivation (to control the weeds in the fields, to increase the infiltration of the rains, and to aerate the soil), pruning (to enhance the development of the fruit), and some form of harvesting and fruit processing. Among these operations, it is only the cultivation that competes with the field-erop operations for the available supply of plow labor, though the competition is not fierce for there is no great time pressure on the cultivation of vineyard and orchard. 227

Hopklns

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The Highlands of Canaan

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theSl'ethe tree branches with sticks (Deut 24.20), but also pruning branches to speed the process and reach inaccessible fruits, and picking (Borowski 1979: 176-177; Aschenbrenner 1972: 54). Gathering fallen fruit from the ground caused few problems if the olives were destined for the press. The process of extracting and purifying olive oil involves three steps and a few facilities. First the olives must be crushed. Only one facility that can be identified as an olive crushing installation appears in the archaeological record of the Late Bronze and early Iron, Age Highlands. The lone example is the large mortar unearthed at Bethel in the socalled "olive oil factory" (Kelso 1968: 30 and pls, 85b, 89c, d). Possessing an interior measurement of ca. 0.7m wide and O.5m deep, this mortar from the Late Bronze Age was found in association with other oil production equipment as well as debris from the process. Mortars such as these could well have crushed olives in significant quantities. There is nothing in the archaeological record even remotely resembling the round-stone crushing machines familiar in the Hellenistic period and beyond. It must be considered likely, however, that well before the Hellenistic period a more simply wrought cylindrical stone was rolled over olives spread out on ahara surface cut into bedrock in order to crush them (Forbes and Foxhall 1978:39; Eitarn 1979: 148). The second step in the oil extraction process involves pressing crushed olives. This could be accomplished by placing heavy weights upon woven baskets filled with the crushed olives. Such methods would not have been very efficient since only the dead weight of the stone would have exerted pressure to expel the oil. Recent investigations into this process by David Eitam have detailed a significant improvement in the design of the press. By the 8th century B.C.E. the above arrangement was modified by the addition of a beam anchored in a wall above the baskets of crushed olives that pressed down upon the stones that covered them. The increase of leverage provided by the beam greatly improved the efficiency of these presses. Forty such installations have been discovered in a survey of the Samarian Hills, and a number from other locations can be added to this list, including the cut-stone installations found at Tell Beit Mlrsirn and identified by Albright as dye vats. 231

Hopkins-The Highlands of Canaan According ,to',Eitam"the' archaeo!ogicalpicture testifies,(fQ', "an • . advanced state oLdevelopment".,reached byithis ··.b '. pr:~~~., 9yring' ..the }, periodof\t~e ..mol'lilraha vineyards would lie closest in, possibly followed by interculture of fruit trees and grains, then the' grainfields and finally the orcharas, Crops would naturally tend to land best suited for their cultivation. Gardens and grain fields oh the valley floors and gently sloping hillsides; vines and trees occupying the less level areas. On the fallow grain fields and among the orchard trees grazing land would be provided. Within the radius of a day's round trip, the non-cultivated and incompletely cleared land would constitute the remainder of the zone of pasture land. Within and beyond this border maquis and forest would supply the village's need for firewood and building timber as well as serve as a resource for hunting and trapping and gathering vital wild footstuffs. The greatest disruption in this general pattern emerges around water sources which are often not located in the greatest proximity to the village. (See aboveych, 6 §B.3). At these extremely productive agricultural locations, irrigated terrace systems requiring enormous inputs of labor permit the most intensive cultivation. Such sites will skew the entire pattern and are examples of particularly favorable areas which Ron observed to be terraced even beyond the usual border (Mitchell 1971: 363; Ron 1966: 119-120). Despite topographical variegation, or rather, precisely in line with it, the distance-determined pattern of land use emerges specially clearly in the Highlands because of the objective of risk spreading. Risk spreading through cultivating a diversity of crops is coupled to risk spreading through cultivating a diversity of topographical settings. The great diversity of the agricultural environments created by a variegated landscape overlaid by variations in rainfall, soil, and vegetation elicits the attempt to exploit as wide a variety of niches as possible (see above,ch. 3· §C). Thus the 240

Chapter Nine - Risk Spreading &. Labor Optimization ~ypical land holding of a viHage household was likely to be fragmented cl~iq,q()ldiflggr.~p+oft"',":::';" ,','.• "',,"

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LISIOF ABBREVIATIONS AAAG Ar1~a!s of theAss~i~tion of American Geographers AAR American Academy of Religion •... AASOR Annual of the ASQR.tliew to the Decalogue-. New York: Schocken Books. Picard, Leo 1943 Structure and Evolution of Palestine with Comparative Notes on Neighbouring Countries. Jerusalem: Hebrew U. 1971 "Israel, Land of (lieographical Survey): Geology." Encyclopedia Judaica 9:194-220. Polgar, Steven 19.75 "Population, Evolution, and Theoretical Paradigms." In: Population, Ecology, and Social Evolution, pp, 1-25. Ed. S. Polgar. The Hague: Mouton. Polunin, Oleg, &. Huxley, Anthony 1978 Flowers of the Mediterranean. London: Chatto &. Windus. Porter, J[oshua] R. 1967 The Extended Family in the Old Testament. Occasional Papers in Social and Economic Administration, no. 6. London: Edutext, Price, Larry W. 19&1 Mountains and Man: A Study of Process and Environment. Berkeley: U. of California. Pritchard, James B. 1962 Gibeon Where the Sun Stood Still: The •Discovery of the Biblical City. Princeton: Princeton U.P. 1964 Winery, Defenses, and Soundings at Gibeon. Museum Monographs. Philadelphia: The University Museum. Pri tchard, James B., ed, 1954 The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton: Princeton U.P. 1969 Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. 3rdedn. with supplement. Princeton: Princeton U.P. Rainey, Anson F. 1983 "Wine from the Royal Vineyards." BASOR 245:57-62. Rappaport, Roy A. 1968 Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People. New Haven: Yale H.P. Redfield, Robert 1960 The Little Community and Peasant Society and Culture. Chicago: U. of Chicago. Reifenberg, A[dolf] 1947 The Soils of Palestine: Studies in Soil Formation and Land Utilization in the Mediterranean. Transl, C. L. Whittles. Rev. edn, London: Thomas Murphy. 1955 The Struggle Between the Desert and the Sown: The Rise and Fall of Agriculture in the Levant. Jerusalem: Jewish Agency. Renfrew, Jane M. 1973 Paleoethnobotany: The Prehistoric Food Plants of the Near East and Europe. New York: Columbia H.P. Richardson, H. Neil "Agriculture." IDB 1:56-60. !\J!l~ri~anert. Mahfred . 197 I The Settlement of the Israelite ihf'alestinel A Critical Survey of